Notre Dame Law Review Volume 44 | Issue 4 Article 4 1-1-1969 Irish Judiciary Paul C. Bartholomew Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Paul C. Bartholomew, Irish Judiciary, 44 Notre Dame L. Rev. 560 (1969). Available at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr/vol44/iss4/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Notre Dame Law Review by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE IRISH JUDICIARY Paul C. Bartholomew* I. Introduction' Law and courts arrived in Ireland with the Normans in the twelfth cen- tury. Royal justice actually began to be dispensed about the beginning of the thirteenth century by a permanent deputy known as a Justiciar. From the use of royal writs by this representative of the King there was a gradual development into the jury system and assizes. In 1210 King John visited Ireland and ordered that English common law be used there. Initially this law was applied only to English settlers located chiefly around Dublin. Although application of the com- mon law expanded as time went on, it was not until the seventeenth century that the native system of law, the brehon, was dropped completely, and English law was used throughout Ireland. II. Historical Development of the Irish Court System The historical development of the first courts in Ireland paralleled the history of courts in England. The royal representative in Ireland was the Justiciar whose court before the end of the fourteenth century came to be known as the Irish Court of King's Bench.